The Wild Lower West: The Emotional Toll Of The Reading Circus

11/14/2024 07:42 AM

In this week's column, Dixey discusses how the ongoing takeover saga is making him feel, and calls on the club to communicate better with fans.

When I started writing this column, it was always with the intention of keeping things light-hearted and, where possible, provide opinions and insight that were derived from my love of Reading FC.

But this week I make no excuses for light-hearted being replaced with anger, frustration and quite frankly being fed up with being deceived by a club that claims to care about its supporters (sorry, customers).

They say hindsight is a wonderful thing, and all of us without exception wish that our current owners had never become involved, and we never had to watch as they slowly but surely destroy our wonderful club. I do not use the word destroy lightly, as the many definitions seem to perfectly depict the disastrous ownership that we have all endured, and the mood right now of every long-suffering Reading supporter.

Destroy:

• Ruin someone emotionally or spiritually
• Defeat someone utterly
• Ruin the structure, organic existence, or condition of
• End the existence of something by damaging or attacking it

Those that may not love Reading FC as much as I do may well view this as an over-reaction, but the fact is that the ongoing ownership circus has ruined me emotionally and spiritually, and although I'm not quite at the stage of being utterly defeated, I am very close.

Don't get me wrong, I will NEVER give up on this club, and that's maybe part of the problem; I am not alone in being treated with contempt because the club know that many of us will still be there whatever. However, supporting a football team should never be this difficult, and the emotional consequences of false dawns, promised takeovers and periods of exclusivity are starting to take their toll.

As much as I love this club, I currently hate it and feel let down by a regime that resembles a secret society with their own unique handshake and initiation ceremony. Silence in this case is anything but golden, and the inability of the club to provide anything other than regular goal highlights from an era that resembled a well-run club is seriously starting to grate my gears.

Following the collapse of the Rob Couhig deal we were informed that the club had entered another period of exclusivity, or as I like to call it, a period when the club can remain anonymous and not have to answer difficult questions for a few months.

The fact is: I'm fed up with silence, I'm fed up with lies, I'm fed up with the club doing what it wants without consultation with the people who support it, and I no longer believe a word that I read regarding the proposed takeover. How sad is that?

It seems the whole football structure is littered with people who want to own a football club, and how do we know which is fantasy and which is reality? I remember Crystal Palace owner Steve Parish once saying: "You should meet some of the people who want to buy a football club. For every person who might be able to help, you have 20 complete nutcases."

My understanding of a period of exclusivity is that it is a timeframe in which a buyer and seller agree to negotiate exclusively with each other without entertaining other potential buyers. This period of exclusivity (usually 30-60 days) is also a time when the seller is prohibited from carrying out further activities with other prospective buyers.

The interesting bit is that nowhere in the definition or wording of the agreement (as far as I can see) does it say that "clubs are prohibited from communicating effectively with their supporters during the exclusivity period".

I fully understand that the finer details of any potential deal cannot be divulged, but the decision to provide absolutely no communication at all promotes conspiracy theories and propaganda. I'm fed up with reading from those "in the know" that a deal will be concluded soon, it's very close, or it will happen next week.

As someone of sound mind (apparently), I have the right to choose whether I believe any of this, but the fact is I want that choice to be taken away from me by way of an honest update from the club and its representatives, the ones who hold the information we all crave.

Right now I am in denial, because I can't face the reality that something monumentally bad is about to happen. Alongside that denial though, I can't ignore the fact that my gut tells me there is no period of exclusivity, there is no potential buyer because the deal is too complicated, and there is no long-term solution that will see us out of this mess, with administration looking the only viable option at this point, so I'm looking to someone at the club to disprove any of those theories.

On the pitch, the players and staff have stepped up (at home at least) and are performing miracles to keep picking up points and working with players who have been fast-tracked through a system that is still the envy of most teams in the football pyramid.

So, while I have always been supportive of those behind the scenes who work in equally difficult circumstances, it is time for them to step up and start communicating with the very people who are currently keeping this club alive.

So as a plea to the club: please provide us with an update and prove that you truly care about the people whose mental wellbeing can often be determined by what you say and do.

I don't want to see a montage of Dave Kitson goals anymore, I don't need to remember what happened on this day 25 years ago, and I have absolutely no interest in upgrading my season ticket to hospitality for the next home game.

What I want is an assurance that things are moving in the right direction, we have funds to remain operational for the foreseeable future, and just a glimmer of hope that my club is not about to fall into the same black hole as other clubs that Disastrous Dai has owned.

Several years ago, the club made the decision to brand us as customers rather than supporters, and as a customer buying goods or services from Reading FC, I expect to be kept up to date with anything that may impact the quality of the goods or services that I have purchased.

As a seller of these services, the club would do well to remember that customers are crucial to any business because they generate revenue and promote loyalty, and should therefore not be taken for granted!

Much love and c'mon URZZZ

Dixey